The Obama administration is challenging Arizona’s S.B. 1070, arguing that the Constitution gives the federal government authority to regulate immigration, and that the state law interferes with federal law.

Kobach rejects the challenge.

“The Supreme Court has said again and again that there is a role for the states to play. Congress is the primary actor in the field, but the states are permitted to act too, as long as Congress doesn’t ask them to get off the field, ” Kobach said in a recent interview.